| 智慧篇 | Wisdom |
|---|
| 1智慧使他们的事业，在圣先知的手下进行顺利： | 1Wisdom gave success to their actions through a holy prophet; |
| 2他们走过了无人烟的荒野，在无路的荒野，支搭了帐幕； | 2they crossed an uninhabited wilderness and pitched camp in inaccessible places. |
| 3与敌军对峙，击退了敌人。 | 3They stood up to their enemies and fought off the hostile. |
| 4他们渴时，呼求了你，巖石就给他们流出了清泉，磐石解决了他们的口渴。 | 4When they were thirsty they called on you and you gave them water from hard flint, from a rocky cliff, a welcome relief for the parched. |
| 5他们的敌人在什么事上受罚，他们就在那种困难中受到爱护。 | 5The same creatures you used to punish their enemies were of benefit to them in their trouble. |
| 6【敌人缺少的，以色列人却常有不缺。】 | 6For their enemies an ever-flowing source of river water was polluted with blood - |
| 7为惩罚埃及人颁发杀害婴儿的命令，常流的江河，混入了鲜血污泥， | 7a stern response to the decree ordering the slaughter of infants. But, against all hope, you gave your people water in abundance, |
| 8你却出乎众望，另赐给了以色列人丰富的水； | 8showing them by the thirst they suffered, how you had punished their enemies. |
| 9他们藉著当时的口渴，可以明了你怎样惩罚了他们的仇人。 | 9Their trials were no more than merciful reproofs. Through them, your people learned how severely the wicked were judged and punished. |
| 10以色列人固然受了试探，但这只是出乎仁爱的惩戒，要他们明了不虔敬的人，在天主义怒的审判之下，怎样受了惩罚； | 10You tested them as does a father, while you examined their enemies like a stern king. |
| 11因为你考验以色列人，自来就像一个规劝的父亲；你审问埃及人，却像一位定罪的严厉君王。 | 11Their enemies suffered at the time and also later. |
| 12以色列人不论在的时候，或远去的时候，埃及人都同样遭受痛苦。 | 12When they remembered the past, theirs was a double grief and groaning. |
| 13他们因受双重的苦恼夹击，一回忆往事，便呻吟叹息； | 13They came to see that it was the work of the Lord when they realized that their punishment had benefited the others. |
| 14因为当他们一听说自己的刑罚，反成了别人的利益，便知这是上主的作为。 | 14Long before, they had exposed Moses; they had rejected him in derision; but now they admired him because of what had happened, and after they had suffered a thirst far different from that of the righteous. |
| 15埃及人以前所抛弃，所放逐，所讥笑的人，在事后反为他们惊奇不已，因为他们的口渴，究竟与义人不同。 | 15Their wickedness and foolish ideas led them astray, even to worshiping snakes and other repugnant animals; this is why you sent them hordes of similar creatures, |
| 16他们因愚昧与邪恶的思想，走入了歧途，崇拜了无灵的爬虫和贱兽，你就派遣了成群的无灵的动物，来惩罚他们， | 16teaching them that punishment takes the same form as the sin. |
| 17叫他们知道，人用什么来犯罪，就用什么来罚他。 | 17In fact, your almighty power that created the world from formless matter did not lack means to unleash upon them bears and savage lions, |
| 18因为，你全能的手，既能从无定形的原质中，造出了世界，也不难为他们遣来许多狗熊或猛狮， | 18or monsters freshly created, unknown and full of fury, breathing fire or noisily spitting smoke or flashing fearful sparks from their eyes, |
| 19或新造而不知名的残暴猛兽，喷射火焰，放射毒气，两眼闪烁可怕的火星。 | 19creatures not only capable of destroying them at a single blow but whose mere appearance could make them die of fright. |
| 20这些猛兽，不但能肆虐将他们消灭，即连他们恐怖的形状，也能把人吓死。 | 20Even without this, they could have dropped dead at a single breath if pursued by your justice, or dispersed by the breath of your might; but you ordered all with measure, number and weight. |
| 21即使没有牠们，因你一口气，埃及人也会死亡，因你正义的追击，他们必为你大能的气息所卷去；但你处置一切，原有一定的尺度、数目和衡量。 | 21You are able to show your power at any moment and who can resist the strength of your arm? |
| 22你随时可用你的大能，有谁能抵抗你有力的手臂？ | 22For the entire world lies before you, just enough to tip the scales, a drop of morning dew falling on the ground. |
| 23整个世界，在你跟前，宛如天秤上的一粒尘沙，落在地面上的一滴朝露。 | 23But because you are almighty, you are merciful to all; you overlook sins and give your children time to repent. |
| 24但是，你怜悯众生，因为你是无所不能的，你假装看不见人罪，是为叫罪人悔改。 | 24You love everything that exists and hate nothing that you have made; had you hated anything, you would not have formed it. |
| 25的确，你爱一切所有，不恨你所造的；如果你憎恨什么，你必不会造它。 | 25How could anything endure if you did not will it? And how could anything last that you had not willed? |
| 26如果你不愿意，甚么东西能够存在？如果你不吩咐，甚么东西能够保全？ | 26You have compassion on all because all is yours, O Lord, lover of life. |
